lol crazy how this timeline just about matches up
The timing of this was even whackier
Why slow down when you can double down?
How so? Politically as they just probably and rightfully accused the Saudis of murdering a journalist? I'm of the opinion two countries can be shit at the same time. I'm not even impressed w/ my own.
Yeah, this has been an ongoing thing for two years and they just brought the US into the fray with the Saudi thing by showing them video proof of the killing.
Did they finally actually show the proof. Last I heard there was a flimsy excuse of not releasing it b/c they didn't want to reveal their spying capabilities. All I could think was... well now they know their consulate is bugged. I'm 99.9% sure the saudis did this at any rate. I just found Turkey's previous reasoning to be weak. They're probably just extending the headlines at this point. At this point it's just a tyrant pointing at a dictator and saying the other is worse. "Saudi Royalty" is probably the greatest euphemism of modern times.
As far as i know it isnt "spreading christianity" that is counted as terrorism. It's the alleged ties of the pastor with Gulen, for now Turkey is still a secular state.... for now...
They've made a litany of claims and some are more absurd than others as they've never provided evidence in their secret kangaroo court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Brunson
Bottom line he got picked up w/ a ton of other people in 2016 in what amounted to a purge. In years past they've been criticized for their "insulting Turkishness" religious prosecution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_Turkey#Abuses_of_religious_freedom.
The Christian community is like 0.2% there iirc. While they seem to tolerate their minority Armenian Christians to a degree it's pretty obvious it's a case of American + Christian that checked all the right boxes for them. The guys lived there 23 years and had a congregation of around 25. Never registered on the govts radar till the Turkish version of McCarthyism and paranoia took hold after the failed coup attempt. Now we're supposed to believe this guy was lined up to be CIA chief in Turkey after the coup.
They can call the charges whatever they like but an American Christian is always going to be on their list of "usual suspects".
"insulting Turkishness" was always just a means to punish apostacy. They're not secular in a western sense of the word.
Also a pretty good article on it.
https://www.dw.com/en/andrew-brunson-us-pastor-on-trial-in-turkey-on-terror-charges/a-43400601
What are the charges against Brunson?
Ankara accuses Brunson of gathering intelligence using his religious work as cover, and working to convert Kurds to Christianity to "divide" the country.
He was originally charged with membership of Gulen's group and risked life imprisonment.
The latest indictment explicitly states he is not charged with being a member of Gulen's group or the PKK.
Literally charged w/ trying to convert kurds to Christianity to "divide the country" . They dropped all the gulen and pkk nonsense
@Boukert - Just letting you know I updated this comment w/ more info.
There's your first problem. NPR was actually pretty decent up until maybe 6 years ago. Suddenly it made a hard turn left overnight for no apparent reason and it became hard for me to listen to anymore.